I talked with Courtney at Stanford. I don’t know if she has lost faith with Sam or simply interest. Remember she was her biggest fan in Northern America, as she (once) defined herself, and the 219 FD entries that goes along.

Nguyen: I have a few: Serena will complete the Serena Golden Slam by winning the Australian Open and French Open. ... Schiavone will retire at Roland Garros. ... The Brits will have a player inside the top 20. ... Li will win another Slam. ... The WTA will continue to struggle to find a title sponsor. ... Stosur, ranked ninth, will drop out of the top 20.

I had a bit of a disappointment with uni, so I'm watching Sam's USO2011 final to pick me up. Always works a charm

I think Sam holding serve at 1-2 in the second set from 15-40 down might be the single most pride-inducing moment of hers for me

Is everything okay?

Nov 20th, 2012 06:20 AM

SilverPersian

Re: Sammy's 2012 Off-Season Conference Thread

I had a bit of a disappointment with uni, so I'm watching Sam's USO2011 final to pick me up. Always works a charm

I think Sam holding serve at 1-2 in the second set from 15-40 down might be the single most pride-inducing moment of hers for me

Nov 12th, 2012 06:20 AM

stromatolite

Re: Sammy's 2012 Off-Season Conference Thread

This is a ridiculous claim, based on nothing but a need to fulfill the request to come up with a "bold prediction". It would be different if Sam's current ranking was based on a couple of flukey results, but that's simply not the case.

Harsh. I know I might be ever so slightly biased, but if anything I think Sam's 2013 will be a bit better than this year. She won't have to deal with the pressure of being the USO champion, and there won't be an extended grass court season.

It's strange, because her run at the end of the year (despite some heartbreaking losses ) brought some very solid results, but Sam's reputation seems to have really gone downhill among GM posters in the last month or so.

Nguyen: I have a few: Serena will complete the Serena Golden Slam by winning the Australian Open and French Open. ... Schiavone will retire at Roland Garros. ... The Brits will have a player inside the top 20. ... Li will win another Slam. ... The WTA will continue to struggle to find a title sponsor. ... Stosur, ranked ninth, will drop out of the top 20.

Ouch! Courtney losing faith in Sammy? I thought it was a really harsh - the pessimist in me thinks that even if Sammy does struggle in 2013, she should still comfortably remain in the top 20.

Shocking. She is unexpecting the unexpected. I just feel the opposite.
B.

EDIT:
I really felt Kerber at the USO Vs. Sam was her ultimate opponent and that her performance was absolutely not a fluke like Courtney thought at the time. Now she thinks Kerber is a real top 10 player. But if you look at the YEC, Kerber is the only player with a worse result than Sam: 3 losses. Sam aside, all the 2012 YEC players won at least one match, if I'm correct. Courtney should know Sam was exhausted since the Asian swing this year. I don't know for Kerber.
I don't want to extrapolate anything general here, I'm not a general WTA specialist, but there is nothing here to rationally "expect" Sam out the Top 20 in 12 months.

Nov 11th, 2012 01:51 PM

annetcl

Re: Sammy's 2012 Off-Season Conference Thread

Extract from the CNNSI article "Roundtable: WTA year in review"

Bold prediction for the 2013 season?

Nguyen: I have a few: Serena will complete the Serena Golden Slam by winning the Australian Open and French Open. ... Schiavone will retire at Roland Garros. ... The Brits will have a player inside the top 20. ... Li will win another Slam. ... The WTA will continue to struggle to find a title sponsor. ... Stosur, ranked ninth, will drop out of the top 20.

We can getting very spiritual now aren't we? This is an interesting thought though. I am always really impressed with Maria's fighting spirit and competitiveness. Sammy could do well to take a page of Maria's play book re the resetting after each and every point but hopefully not take 28 secs to do this! Maria got a warning from Cicak during her match with Sammy for taking too long between points

From Sammy's pressers etc you get the impression her mind is very "busy" during matches. This is where I feel Sammy could do with some medication/yoga type sessions just to learn keep the mind simple and calm during her matches. I see that Casey is attending some Lululemon summit where she is doing yoga and medication. She should have roped Sammy in for this!

Well, it's not like Sam doesn't possess the tennis skills to beat the top 10 players. She does. So what's holding her back? The psychological aspect of her game. I agree that her mind is very busy during matches. And the mind cannot hit a tennis ball. Therefore, I think she needs to develop some kind of process to hush the mind and let the body do what it knows how to do automatically. (Like I said, this is something that's near and dear to my heart because I have worked on it for a long time and still struggle with an over-active inner voice during matches). If she can find that calm, centered place between points, I think we will see fewer meltdowns and chokes.

Something tells me that if Casey and Sam were doing yoga together, they would not be able to stop giggling! But there is definitely a connection between the spiritual and mental parts of the game. I hope she can find a method that works well for her, perhaps having a mini-visit to the Zen Garden between each point. On the amateur level, I've also heard of coaches encouraging their students to think of a song that they can come back to in their mind and play it in their head to cleanse the thoughts of any judgement or inner negativity - although probably too simple of a strategy on the pro level, it's a good idea and works well for some folks.

Nov 2nd, 2012 01:31 PM

Grigorpova

Re: Sammy's 2012 Off-Season Conference Thread

11) What do you predict in 2013 for Sam (ranking, tournaments, H2Hs with particular players etc.)?

Just gonna do this one. I want her to get back into top five and ascend to the top three. I hope she wins a clay Premier (preferably Stuttgart), RG and another hardcourt Premier/International to bring her titles to six! :sob:

Make top three first time in career, get wins against Vika, Petra, Maria, Aga, Venus and Serena.

I have to agree with the first part of this answer, but disagree with the second. I never really *loved* any of Sam's outfits this year; I felt like a lot of them were a bit too flashy, and some of the designs were just a bit weird. Can't say I liked the black and pink number you chose though (which has been charmingly labelled the "vagina lips" dress in GM )

Haha - I never thought of the frills that way until I saw some comments on GM. Not a big fan of the frills in front but love the cut of the dress the most. Asics have the coolest shoes though - I hope next season the clothes will be better. They seem intent on "showing off" Sam's back, the dresses are too short and its too unfeminine for my liking. I hope they come up with new designs next year - I will be quite disappointed if they are intent on recycling the singlet dress with the cross behind again for next year. That would just be so lame. The more I talk about it the more I miss Lacoste. But have to say though, the Lacoste gear for 2012 hasn't been too impressive either. 2010 is the best collection I think.

Quote:

7) What would you like to see Sam work on in the future?

That's a pretty amazing and dead accurate analysis of the areas that Sam could improve. The list looks quite long when you spell it all out though

Hahaha...who said Sammy was perfect Have to say a few of things on the list are tweaks rather than major overhauls to her game. She has made great strides to making her weaknesses column smaller and smaller which is no easy feat I suppose when you are in your late 20s. So full marks for that!

@SilverPersian - re: doing the routine between points, a la Masha.... (I can speak from personal experience on the importance of this one.) The routine (no matter what it entails) is critical. It allows a player to feel/acknowledge whatever emotions the previous point causes, then there's a letting go phase (usually turning your back to the net and walking a bit), and then there is a re-focus, or 'centering' phase to quiet the brain and give the body something to do (for me, it's moving the vibration dampener on my racquet slightly each time - playing with the strings engages the body and shuts the voices in my mind down). They are allowed 20 seconds between points - but it seems like Sam doesn't use her full 20 seconds. When she's serving, she gets 3 balls and looks them over and keeps 2. This is part of her 'ritual' and it is good, but she needs to do more. Who knows - maybe she goes through the 'reset process' every point, but I think you're right - for Sam, it usually seems to take a change of ends or break between sets to get refocused.

That's just my opinion on the reset process. I learned about it from a very experienced teaching pro, and it takes discipline to do it all the time (especially when there's a lot of momentum and/or pressure). But Masha is a perfect example of how simple movements and repetitive processes between points can be used successfully.

We can getting very spiritual now aren't we? This is an interesting thought though. I am always really impressed with Maria's fighting spirit and competitiveness. Sammy could do well to take a page of Maria's play book re the resetting after each and every point but hopefully not take 28 secs to do this! Maria got a warning from Cicak during her match with Sammy for taking too long between points

From Sammy's pressers etc you get the impression her mind is very "busy" during matches. This is where I feel Sammy could do with some medication/yoga type sessions just to learn keep the mind simple and calm during her matches. I see that Casey is attending some Lululemon summit where she is doing yoga and medication. She should have roped Sammy in for this!

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